Mindsharing: The Art of Crowdsourcing Everything

Whether we need to make better financial choices, find the love of our life, or transform our career, crowdsourcing is the key to making quicker, wiser, more objective decisions. But few of us even come close to tapping the full potential of our online personal networks. Lior Zoref offers proven guidelines for applying what he calls "mind sharing" in new ways. For instance, he shows how a mother's Facebook update saved the life of a four-year-old boy, and how a manager used LinkedIn to create a year's worth of market research in less than a day. Zoref's clients are using his techniques to innovate and problem-solve in record time. Now he reveals how crowdsourcing has the ability to supercharge our thinking and upgrade every aspect of our lives.

“The Internet has become humanity’s nervous system, connecting our collective intelligence, knowledge, and desires. In Mindsharing, Lior Zoref offers us powerful insights into the nature of crowd wisdom and how this will change the way we make our decisions in every aspect of our lives.” —Peter H. Diamandis, MD; CEO, X PRIZE Foundation; executive chairman, Singularity University “Lior Zoref is a dreamer, an inspiration, and someone who has figured out how to connect the dots and make a meaningful difference in this world. Read this book! It will be one of the best things you can ever do for yourself.” —Jeff Pulver, cofounder of Vonage; CEO and founder of Pulver.com and BusinessWeek Tech Guru “Mindsharing is a friendly read, but it is a riveting one. It is proof that the power of collective intelligence can actually improve and protect your life. This one is most definitely worth your time.” —Stan Slap, author of Under the Hood and Bury My Heart at Conference Room B “One of the best ways to unleash creativity is to leverage the power of connectedness. Mindsharing offers several practical tools that help you unleash the creative wisdom of the crowd.” —Todd Henry, author of Die Empty and The Accidental Creative “Zoref makes a convincing case for crowdsourcing everything from careers to romance.” —Kirkus Reviews “For those already comfortable with social media who wish to use it more powerfully, or those who wish to learn about the subject.” —Library Journal Lior Zoref is a crowd wisdom researcher, an international speaker, and a consultant. He worked for fourteen years at Microsoft, most recently as VP of Marketing for Consumer and Online Services.

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The author of this book is rightfully exuberant about the wonders of the crowdsourcing phenomenon, and his new spin on it, for which he has coined a fresh term: Mindsharing.I also fully acknowledge the many positive aspects of the revolution he is talking about - the incredible power of the crowdsourcing phenomenon and the new and innovative ways all of us can leverage social media platforms to advance our lives.For the most part, it's a terrific book, I recommend you buy it. But what concerns me about the book is the author's failure to fully acknowledge the dark side of crowdsourcing and what he calls Mindsharing -- and have no doubt, there is a dark side.In any revolution, there are always winners and losers. Let's just acknowledge that.For example, take such long-time professionals as journalists, freelance writers, photographers and graphic artists. One of my close associates, who is a talented graphic artist, described the situation this way:"Imagine if someone needed a plumber. In the "old days," he would have gone to the Yellow Pages, hired a professional, contracted for the work and the plumber would have been paid for the services he or she rendered."But now imagine if a person could instead put out a call to get 20 plumbers to come to his house, fix his leaky pipes, and then only one of them got paid. The rest had to work for free. And the one plumber who did get paid earned 90% less than he previously did.That's crowdsourcing - good for the guy who needed the plumber, but bad for all plumbers."My friend's plumber analogy is basically what has happened to tens of thousands of graphic artists, he said.Today, if someone needs a new logo, there is little need to hire OR PAY a professional graphic artist to do the work. All you have to do is go to a crowdsourcing site, select from among thousands of logos that have been professionally designed and loaded onto a website.Because each artists' logo will be one of thousands, the most he or she can get for his work is many $1 to $10 - but it's much more likely they will almost never sell a piece of commercial art. The crowd is just too massive. There's too much competition - and everyone is working for free. Selling something you designed is more akin to playing the lottery.In fact, this is the way Mr. Zoref arrived at the final cover design for this book. To his credit, he at least acknowledges the downside. He writes:"There are some who say that Web sites such as 99designs make designers work without getting paid (unless their design is chosen), while others see it as a disruptive force offering cheap alternative to expensive designers. Without a doubt, it gives designers a chance to develop their portfolio and bid on jobs they might never had access to without the platform."But this is a bland statement. It fails to acknowledge that every time a designer puts her work out there for free, she is undercutting herself and everyone in her profession. The fact is, untold thousands of designers are flooding dozens and dozens of online sites like 99designs with unlimited "free stuff" - so why should anyone hire and pay a graphic designer ever again?There are many other similar examples of the same phenomenon happening across an array of other professions - but I'll leave off here because Amazon likes its review short - but I wish Mr. Zoref would have paid more attention to the tens of thousands of people who have found their lifelong careers become suddenly irrelevant (unless they are willing to work for free).There are other aspects of Mindsharing and crowdsourcing that also bring out my "Inner Contrarian" and yes, I'll admit, my "Latent Luddite."I mean, how eagerly do we really want to go down this road? Do we want to start outsourcing every aspect of our lives, minds and personalities - even our personal, intimate love lives?Mr. Zoref seems to think so - have a problem finding love or with dating? Easy! Mindshare it! If you're socially inept, don't worry. Zoref says the hive mind behind your smartphone or tablet will tell you what to do, how to act and how to be. The "hive mind" is ever ready to choose for you who you will date, and even how to speak and act on that date.You may be a social cripple - because you spend all your time in a room looking at your computer screen -- because you have your nose pressed to your smartphone while walking down the street or riding the bus -- because you play video games for two hours a day -- but no problem -- the computer made you a social cripple, but Mr. Zoref says the answer is: More computer time with Mindsharing! The ubiquitous Mindsharing hive will carry you along with the rest of the ants. You have to Mindshare now because your own, individual mind is gone.I'm only getting started here - but it's far past time to pull the plug. I'll just leave you with some homework to do. Here's your assignment:Go to Google and look up a mysterious figure by the name of Jar'Edo Wens.When you find out who Jar'Edo Wens, ask yourself: Do we really want to crowdsource encyclopedias?Finally, I am required to acknowledge that I receive a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest and objective review ... and my honest and objective opinion is that this is definitely a book you should buy and read - and, please, make up your own mind about it - don't "Mindshare" what should be your own, individual, personal opinion.

As many reviewers have already noted, Lior is a master at mindsharing. Having known Lior for years it has been fascinating to watch him, and his methods evolve on how to both tap the wisdom of his crowd while at the same time delighting, inspiring, and enriching them. This is no simple task, and Lior has put all his knowledge, plus a whole bunch of research, into an easy to read and highly accessible book. Inside he covers topics like:- The pro's and con's between potential platforms for mindsharing like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Quora, and writing your own blog. He even shows you how to mindshare more specific things on websites like Reddit and Fiverr.- How to constantly engage your crowd without over engaging them (i.e. how often to post, what kind of content to post, how to respond when the crowd responds, etc. )- Different applications for mindsharing - topics include business, career, leadership, personal, health, money, creativity, and more.- Common mistakes and pitfalls (including many made by Lior himself)I found the parts where he goes into what makes a high value post (hint, it’s not just a one line update about what you had for dinner… though even what you made for dinner can be turned into a high value post), as well as how to nurture online crowd/community most helpful.Also, the book is filled with stories, examples, and research of using the principles in action, both for individuals and organizations. I found it fascinating to read about initiatives like The Good Judgment Project, which "harnesses the wisdom of the crowd to forecast world events". Basically they identified groups of ordinary people, like a sixty year old pharmacist in Maryland, who turned our to be remarkably skilled at forecasting the outcomes of certain global events, sometimes even better than highly trained intelligence analysts (reportedly 30% better than intelligence officers with access to actual classified information).If you are someone like me – i.e. on social media (kind of), know that it can be used in more effectively, but not really sure how to do it an authentic way ¬– then this may be a great book for you. The principles are straightforward, highly practical, and won’t make your friends feel like you’ve suddenly had an online personality transplant.